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If you can't read don't worry! Just click on any one of these pics
and it'll take you straight to the gallery which has more pics.
and it'll take you straight to the gallery which has more pics.
Yesterday I popped down to Brixton to document the party
that celebrated the death of Margaret Thatcher! It was quite
a weird place to be; if there's anything that's a really
un-British thing to do, it's to celebrate someone's death.
I decided I wanted to take a few pictures as well as do a
few paraphrased interviews. Here's some of the opinions
that I gathered from the people who came down.
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Warren, 44, builder.
Warren says peoples celebration of Thatcher's death wasn't
about people being malicious, and it was more so about
people being genuinely happy because they disliked what
she did with her power. He thinks that she was overly
capitalistic with the amount of things she privatised, as
well as made society too selfish. He also says that she
got to hide behind the media portraying her as some
sort of 'strong woman'.
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Valerie
Much like Warren, Val here felt this party was more about people
disliking her policies rather than celebrating an old woman dying.
When I asked her what she thought the 'ConDems' would think of
all this, she was pretty sure David Cameron wouldn't like it!
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Will, 34, chef.
Will here was the first to admit he did come here with malice
and ill intent, though as you can tell from the banner he's
holding up it's not really something that I have to point out. He
tells me that he grew up in Peckham during Thatcher's time,
where throughout his primary school days he didn't have a
permanent teacher. He also dislikes her for crucifying the
non Tory boroughs and for shutting down the ILEA.
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Joseph, barman
Joe's a friend of mine, so it's a real shame I can't
remember how old he is. Oh well.
With his typically postive, life loving attitude he tells me
he's just here to party but feels like the malicious vibes are
a bit too much. His main thoughts are that when it comes
down to it, although he doesn't know her personally there
are people who love and care for her and will have to endure
seeing all of this all over the news. I say I had a familar
sentiment towards Amy Winehouse when she died and people
making jokes about this. For some reason we find this amusing
and have bit of a chuckle...
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Adele, 48, teacher.
Adele's another interviewee who grew up during Thatcher
times. Adele says she felt frightened during this period
because of things like; The Falklands, neo-liberalism, Maggie's
infamous qoute "There is no such thing as society" and her
relationship with the slightly controversial Mr.Ronald Reagan.
Adele also felt that her death was in good timing, due to
the current party's attack on the poor, cuts on public services,
the 450,000 signature strong petition against Ian Duncan,
so in a way the celebrations were helping voice out
against not only Maggie, but the current party too.
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Sharefa, I think she said she was 24 but I forgot to write it down...
The last person who I interviewed was Sharefa, whose name I
would have spelt wrong had I not taken her email address...
She was pretty happy that Thatcher's death had brought
people together, and she was also happy that it had happened
in Brixton because it was badly affected during her time and
still is because of her racist policies. She as well as many others
as you probably can already tell didn't quite like her war on the poor
as well as her being one of the first to introduce neo-liberalism
My personal take on this is that while I enjoyed seeing people
be able to freely express themselves the chants and songs regarding
Maggie's death were a bit too much for lil' ol' me. Some people
questioned the morals of the likes who'd celebrate someones death,
but even though I could stomach some of the celebrations I think if
you're allowed to come together and say nice things about people
you should be able to say nasty things about them too,
regardless of if they are dead or alive.
Not everyone there was singing along and there were a few who
quite disliked Thatcher but felt singing songs about her being dead
was a step too far, and generally had the mixed feelings of being
happy she was dead, but feeling guilty about celebrating about it.
Maybe it's the Goldsmiths in me, but I think it raises the question that is
"do some people feel bad celebrating a death because it's actually wrong,
or is it because it's something we as a culture aren't particularly used to?"
I think it's the latter but the answer lies with the individual person.
Anyway that's enough amateur journalism from me for now,
bellow are links to the pictures and my fb if you wana talk,
cya.
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